Unofficial news and tips about Google

January 9, 2009

New Google Favicon

Google changed its favicon last year and many people said that the new one was ugly. Probably this the reason why Google decided to use another favicon starting from today. The new favicon uses all the colors from Google's logo, while keeping the same lowercase "g".

Marissa Mayer's description from last year is very appropriate. "We wanted something distinctive and noticeable (...). We wanted something that embraced the colorfulness of the logo, yet wouldn't date itself." Adam Howard, a reader of this blog, thinks that the new favicon "looks like a mini paint-by-numbers".

Here are all the three Google favicons, starting with the new one, followed by the simple favicon added last year and the initial Google favicon, which is still my favorite:

"Back in June, we rolled out a new favicon — the small icon that greets you when you access Google on your URL bar or your bookmarks list — and we encouraged our users to submit their ideas for this important piece of Google branding. We were impressed by the volume of submissions we received, and today we are happy to introduce a new Google favicon inspired by those submissions by our users. André Resende, a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil, submitted the design that inspired our new favicon: . His placement of a white 'g' on a color-blocked background was highly recognizable and attractive, while seeming to capture the essence of Google."

Ugh. Just noticed this. I hate it. Asked a coworker what he thought, he didn't even realize there was a 'g' there, he thought it was just a blob.

It's a real pity, because some of the prospective designs they had last year (see this post: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-google-favicon.html ) were really good, like the 'folded triangle', 'uppercase G in a blue block', and the 'swoosh' designs (#1 and #3 if you start from the top left row)

Original G > Colourful g > Blue gFair enough, the G was looking a tad dated, but this new g isn't recognisable enough. Probably doesn't help that Google doesn't have a logo as such, just a specifically fonted/coloured word. Ho hum

I just realized, that the white lines in it should be a "g"?!!To me it appears a little bit too childish not really matching Google, which is an "adult" company knuckeling down to lobbies and political systems.A child free in mind wouldn't do that - except to his parents.

Ups did I get too political? OK it's only a favicon... only 16x16 pixels, there are other things in this world to worry about!

Improvement over the last iteration, although they could have just left the original G in the square as-is. This one does stand out better among the dozen other favicons currently showing on my browser tabs.

have to admit I think the original one sent by André is much better because the g is in the middle and is incredibly clear when comparing it to the one they made. Having the g off centre without a colour to separate it from the address bar/tab bar where it's displayed was a big mistake.

With all that said, I see nothing wrong with Lucian E. Marin's effort. Maybe the same thinking can apply to that one, which is extend the corner colours along the edges (1px wide) so that it actually creates a thin border, just like Google's first favicon. You might say that's like the first of the other efforts (Hadi Onur Demirsoy's) but I REALLY prefer the big G ...

It's Google, not google ... It's even got a big G on their business cards ffs

The design is remarkably fresh. I think everyone has a nasty taste in their mouth for google. It's not the icon, it's the company's image that is bothering you. Anyone with any significant experience in web design will realize this is a masterful piece.

I like it, however at home I use Firefox on Ubuntu and it displays the blue lowercase favicon. This afternoon at work (XP) it showed the new multicolor one.Did they changed it back or is it because of the OS? Is the same google account.

ATROCIOUS! Someone vomited where my favicon should be. This is the most disgusting favicon I have ever seen in my entire life from any website. What was wrong with the old capital G? Are you guys trying to deliberately undermine your ability to have any form of recognizable branding. It would be like Nike doing away with the Swoosh™. You don't mess with an iconic trademark.

Well, at least Google is finally admitting to the fact that their design work is done mostly by undergraduate computer scientists, rather than graphic designers. The best part is that they in fact went ahead and made the final version markedly worse than the outside submission.

the original [G] was great, the new lower-case blue [g] was great, but i really just got used to the blue favicon then they go change it to what i call the "kid's google" favicon... i really have to agree with the 2nd comment from Anonymous on Jan 9th 09 @ 10:58 AM PDT.

Also, J said on January 9, 2009 4:37 PM PDT that its getting worse than the 2012 olympics logo too. I have to go with that too.

germex said on January 9, 2009 6:58 PM PDT that his Firefox on Linux pc was old [g], then on his windows pc was the new favicon i call "kid's google". I think on the linux pc you mita just been there before the switch. I've got a pc im gonna put ubuntu on myself, but it really mustn't be the os or firefox thats doing it... favicon isnt really too much of a worry when you get used to it, huh? cos i kinda freaked when i saw it, so i checked the google blog. Good enough, it was there.

Over 100 comments in <24 hrs...it's amazing that people feel so strongly about a little 16x16 icon! If anyone else changed their favicon, who would care--or even notice!It looks like about 10-20% who commented liked it--I wonder if Google will keep it for long! (I'm guessing they will.)

I hate the new one as I hated the older one and as I hate the oldest one.

I think Google is missing distinctive graphical logo. They only have a very gently stylized (and excelent) name of Google. Now they are trying to push it to tiny square of favicon.

They can't succeed as:- text logo is too big to fit the favicon area and you have to cut it (getting back to ugly old unpolished capital G with colorful frame)- text logo is too plain to be eye catching in such a small area (again you can decorate it with something like in the old capital G with the ugly frame)- you can come up with something new, but it will not be related with Google as we know it (two new logos, the middle one was probably the worst idea as it shared all the negative properties)

And if they don't want a graphical logo, I would return to the old idea of capital G taken from text logo and polish it graphically. The old one really is ugly. Paintbrush job?

So many strong colors.. in a favicon space..! That's not pleasant... From an obscured view, it looks like... there is a hole in my firefox tabs. And it is UGLY... eye straining silly attention seeker... hmmm... what happened to u google..?

it looks awful.I think the best was the last one, the "G", although the classic "g" was also OK.Andre Resende's version is much better than what they adapted. The green an red at the right are particulary awful, not to speak of the ugly asymmetry...

It's hard to see the "g" on a white background. Was this intentional? If I stare at it for a few seconds against a white background it sort of looks like an old reel-to-reel movie projector.

I cached the old block-style "G" a long time ago. That's what I was using in 1998 when Google came on the scene and I was building metacrawler spider bots. The simple interface with high quality stood out then. You knew these guys were on to something. That's the Google I want to think about when I see an icon so that's the icon I use.

This new favicon is HORRIBLE. I installed the Favicon Picker add-on to Firefox just to get rid of it. The add-on can also protect the favicon from any further nasty changes like this. What were the folks at Google thinking??? Ugh!

I don't know what you people are smoking when you say things like "The new favicon looks terrible". I'm glad we don't live in such a simplistic monotone world where EVERYBODY thinks that a logo with just a plain g or a box with a G in it is better than a logo with vibrant colors and a nice design. Seems to me you're all just looking for something to b*TcH about (as am I...so I'm b*TcHing at you; the "b*TcHers").

Don't worry about all the people complaining just because it's new... This favicon is colourful and in line with the rest of google's design... It looks a bit Web 2.0, but who cares, it's still better than the other two...

This is just navel-gazing, with all the great improvements that google have made, why are they futzing with and ruining something that worked well before? Everyone recognised a g on a white square. This one's kinda ugly (not as bad as its immediate predecessor mind) but is still far too garish.

I noticed immediately the second that my browser opened and I think it's hideous!! The original submission by the student was much better, with the 'g' centered. Why did they move it to the side?? To me it looks really awkward and childish, I don't like it at all.

Seriously google, stop messing with things that wern't broken and just go back the the big G. This favicon looks like it's straight out of the mid 90's or something. Too load and visually noisy, not very google-y at all!

I'm all for change when it is needed, but the new icon is bad. I don't want to insult the designer who came up with it, but in these trying economic times you should do better work for fear of losing your job.

What happened to google being sleek and clean? The cleanness and simplicity was one of the main reasons why everyone started using google in the first place, not because of any try-hard marketing idea of 'fun playfulness'.

There is enough badly-designed, squashed-up clutter assaulting our senses while we navigate!

It doesn't look so bad when the entire favicon design is visible (like the image given in the text of this story) but it doesn't seem to properly fit into the address bar neatly? It just looks squished and amateur!

It's ugly. I'm taking it off my bookmarks bar. Is there a way to change it back? The old lowercase icon was fine. There should be an option to change it! The primary colors make it look cheap and outdated.

the most recent icon is a complete failure in my eyes! it reminds me of this four colored polo shirt: http://www.uoftbookstore.com/online/prodimg/rugbyshirt.jpg. the design submitted is much better than the current!

I think the previous favicon lasted too long!! It was almost impossible to recognize google in my bookmarks with such white icon. I don't like the new one so much but i think is much better!!

gmail has change also its entrance favicon to the new one, so i can't distinguish from the google in my bookmarks. Anyway you can retrieve the gmail and old google favicon yet from http://www.getfavicon.org

Hmm, to be honest I am not a fan of it. I will not go so far as to say 'ugly' but there does seem to be a bit of a childish, hand drawn nature to it.Also, my biggest complain is that it simply does not jump out at me at all. I am used to my eye instantly jumping to my Google tabs, partially because I recognized the old logo, partially because I felt it was distinctive as it was. I now find my eye scanning the tabs I have open as this does not jump out at me as easily as the other ones. It is like it is so bright that my eye wants to get away and so skims over it.

This one is way too loud. Andre's submission is way better in that it grabs the attention without overpowering the eyes from which tabs is meant to be from Google. I use Opera and sometimes click on the trashcan for old tabs. The old favicon is immediately recognizable without being a distraction.

It's ugly. I'm sorry, but it's ugly. Using that many colors in that little space just feels all wrong. Both of the previous ones stuck to an elegant feel - foreground, background, and highlight tones. This one looks like something that belongs in a kindergarten - primary colors, dissonant contrast, no elegance. It feels insulting.

I don't really like this one or the previous one. I think the one you had originally is the best, this is the one people always had associated with Google, and you should just stick to that one instead of ruining an important part of your brand by changing it all the time.

Looks much better than the previous one - the lower case blue didn't stand out at all, and the transparent white just blurred into a grey background. This one is nice and colourful. I still think they should use a big G though. I don't think they'll keep this for long...

I won't be very original, but... it's UGLY! And even more important, it's impossible to recognize. It took ma a few months to get used to the previous lowercase 'g', and I don't really see any way to get used to this one... Oh where are those good old times, when tabs and bookmarks whith Google pages were immediately visible even in the most cluttered workspaces thanks to the clear and bright 'G'? BTW I'm sure it was decision of some stupid managed who was also responsible for Chrome icon (which is also really ugly and unrecognizable).

Can't you leave anything alone? Perhaps you have too much time on your hands there at Google? Normally this type of thing wouldn't bother me, but that new "favicon" is hideous! Why can't Google just use a normal serif type font? Way too much going on for something so small and insignificant. It's aesthetically unappealing and subjective. Go traditional for your next "favicon".

It's pretty hideous. The original is definitely better, (I agree with the previous comment wholeheartedly that "The original makes better, more harmonious use of colour separation (no arbitrary colour edges)", and the new one just looks... garish.

I posted a few minutes ago asking to be given the choice to revert to the old favicon. I found this post - http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/05/30/how-to-revert-to-the-old-google-favicon/ - and easily went back. My bookmark bar is back to the excellent old classic cap G. Thanks greasemonkey! (Now I'm going to see what that program is actually supposed to be used for!)

I liked the first favicon (the G with a multicoloured border around it). To me it was quintessentially Google—it didn't try to be clever or sleek or particularly pretty. It kept within the spirit of the homepage, which is focused more on searching than anything else. Google wasn't trying to be pretty, it was trying to be usable.

The lowercase g was a bit of a shock when I first saw it, and the new colourful one is the same. They're messing with an already-established brand—the lowercase blue g was too hackneyed, and the new colourful one seems determined to be unique.

I need to find that Greasemonkey script that changes it back to the first one.

Thie new icon is such an eyesore. I mean, it's so ugly, it's disturbing. I had to move my google links in my toolbar to regular folder just to appease my senses.Those marketing people really have too much time and money on their hands.

The new icon is a much more prominent eyesore than most any previous edition. Hell, Micro$oft designs look better than this monstrosity. I used to like the favicons, but this thing makes me want to wipe them all out just to avoid seeing it. Maybe I'll just find a good site to bounce my google searches through (or find another search site... there's an idea).